| Match Pictures | Matches: 1997 – 1998 | 1997-1998 Pictures |
Trivia
- Ex-Celt Roy Aitken had just been sacked by Aberdeen.
- Jock Brown was taken to hospital from Celtic Park on 20/11/97 suffering from chest pains. After a battery of tests he was released and it put down to ‘stress’.
- Owen Archdeacon returned to Scotland from Carlisle to join Billy Stark at Morton. The ex-Celt had been sold by Billy McNeill at the end of the 88/89 season to Barnsley where he had enjoyed great success. He moved to Carlisle for the 96/97 season.
- Andreas Thom started his first game since October and Rico Annoni won his first start since March. Tosh McKinlay received a reprieve with the injuries despite being told that he could leave on a free if he found himself a club, and subbed Thom. Missing from the game were Stubbs (hamstring), Rieper (calf strain), MacKay (hamstring), O’Donnell (ankle) and Burley (suspended). The injuries and suspensions called for a somewhat different lineup of a 3 man defense of Boyd, Annoni and Hannah with McNamara and Mahe as wing backs, Lambert and Wieghorst in the middle and Blinker Thom and Larsson were up front.
Review
The game was seen as a pre-run of the League Cup Final to be played next game. Celtic played comprehensively well and gave indications that there was a good team here that might just go on and do the business.
Teams
Celtic:
Gould, Boyd, Mahe, McNamara, Annoni, Hannah, Larsson, Wieghorst, Thom (McKinlay, 84), Lambert (Donnelly, 48), Blinker (Jackson, 70)
Scorers: Thom (36 pen), Larsson (64), Thom (71), Larsson (79)
Booked: Hannah (Celtic)
Dundee Utd:
Dijkstra, Pressley, Malpas, Pedersen, McKimmie, Zetterlund, Dolan (Andersson, 58), Easton, Perry, McSwegan (Winters, 46), Olofsson
Unused Sub: Triallist
Referee: Dallas (Motherwell)
Attendance: 48,581
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | Dundee Utd. | |
| Fouls | 15 | 12 |
| Shots on Target | 7 | 2 |
| Corners | 5 | 3 |
| Offside | 0 | 2 |
Thom finds his touch as Celtic dispel the gloom
Scotland on Sunday 23/11/1997
Celtic 4 Dundee United 0
WIM JANSEN might adore the emphatic scoreline but something about this match will still have nagged him. For a good period of this affair, in particular during a first half when Celtic grabbed a scarcely-deserved lead, his side were inept in the extreme, so much so that it was actually cringe-making. It was a rare sight seeing some of the Parkhead faithful streaming for pies and coffee after half-an-hour.
Celtic were transformed after the interval – either that or United collapsed. The truth was that a goalkeeping blunder by Sieb Dykstra gave Celtic their second after 63 minutes, whereupon we experienced the even rarer sight of United, for once, being the victims of counter-attacks. There was that scenario, plus this mystery called Andreas Thom.
It is now more than two years since this dynamically-paced German arrived at Parkhead in a transfer circus characterised by, among much else, Fergus McCann's state of nervousness over the amount of money Thom was to earn. There were times of strife to follow when McCann wouldn't be the only one to whimper around Celtic Park. Yet, through all the sagas to surround this club, of players in revolt and the departure of Tommy Burns, Thom has stoically remained, if not always with glamour or fanfare.
Yesterday, he abruptly reminded us of why he could once command a regular spot in a German international squad. He scored two goals, the first a penalty, the second a fine, diagonal run and shot past Dykstra, and he might easily have prised a hat-trick if another effort had not screwed wide. But it was Thom's ability, surely the first principle of his game, to beat his man with pace and cross the ball, which gladdened Celtic's support, and might even have aroused the confidence of the player himself.
In spite of all the goals, this couldn't have applied to some other Celtic players. There must now be some serious anxiety about Regi Blinker's place in the grand plan. Just as at Ibrox two weeks ago, he could not avail himself of much interest, and, when he did, his poor touch and squandered passes were something to behold. Blinker, more than anything, seems to lack mettle which marginalises him just as it did at Sheffield Wednesday. Jansen hauled him off after 70 painful minutes.
Little Tommy McLean, a man not wholly enamoured by defeats such as these, has some thinking and sorting to do in time for next Sunday's Coca-Cola Cup final. His goalkeeper may have betrayed him, but United still left vast tracts of vacant land between their defenders. In the second half, poor Maurice Malpas toiled to find manpower around him, as Celtic, and Thom, came marauding towards their goal. It was a match, as it transpired, that was simply turned on its head.
Celtic's formation was quite unfathomable at times. Without Marc Rieper and Alan Stubbs, David Hannah ghosted back into a slot among a back three, which seemed to hold up behind a midfield quartet, with Blinker, Henrik Larsson and Thom, playing outside right, in attack.
Thom seems to ache with every stride, and even appeared clean knackered within 35 minutes, although a marvellous piece of technique from the German did provide for Celtic's opening goal. But, alas, poor Blinker. It has been a long while since a ball-player in Celtic's colours displayed quite such a wretched touch as this fellow yesterday. And him being Dutch and all…
His countryman, Mr Jansen, surely didn't enjoy that opening half. He could hardly contain himself in his perspex dug-out, leaping to his feet every other moment and making strange windmill motions with his arms. Celtic had a hopeless disjointedness about them which filled United with confidence and the visitors soaked up quaking attacks without the slightest anxiety.
Thom, puggling away on the flank, did finally cause hurt with an ingenious cross of the ball. Boring down on his marker, the German adjusted and slashed over a cross off the outside of his right boot, which caused United to panic and left Hannah challenging for the header. Erik Pedersen clearly impeded the Celtic defender and the referee, Hugh Dallas, immediately pointed to the spot. Thom's conversion was overly-rich reward for these hapless efforts from his team.
United had taken one look at Celtic's early raggedness and might easily have been the first to produce a sting.
Jonathan Gould had to race from his line to smother a shot at the feet of Mark Perry. Then, no sooner had Robbie Winters, relegated to the bench, come on for the second half, than he squirmed past Tom Boyd and smacked his shot off a post. But United, thereafter, were undone by their goalkeeper.
Dykstra made a hash of Jackie McNamara's shot from beyond the area. The goalkeeper went down, appeared to clasp the ball, then fumbled and went clawing after it, by which time Larsson was making the easiest job of knocking it into the net. It was at this point that United simply collapsed before our eyes.
In the 70th minute, Wieghorst sent Thom on his way once more. The German hared towards poor Dykstra and lashed the ball past him into the corner. Then Larsson, put through by the impressive McNamara, strode towards Dykstra and astutely chipped the ball over him. An initially sceptical Parkhead roared with a ringing endorsement.
- Manager Interview
“Andy played very well but I knew that he was in great shape because he looked very sharp in training.
“We know what he is capable of so it wasn’t a risk playing him even though he hasn’t started a match recently.
“Scoring goals breeds confidence and after the last couple of weeks it was important we found our form in front of the target.
“The weekend win will have no bearing on the Cup Final but what we will take from it is that we have the ability to score against United.”